Debra here: I get emails from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and often am startled how easy it is to make things better human and planet health-wise. A bit of background first… In July, EWG released an analysis of laboratory testing that showed glyphosate (aka Roundup, shown to cause cancer) is found in more than 90% of non-organic hummus and chickpea samples.
Roundup is sprayed on many non-organic crops and during different parts of the growing season…even shortly before harvest, on beans and grains as a drying agent. Residues end up in popular breakfast cereals and, yes, hummus.
So, what can we do? Here’s the easy part! GO ORGANIC. The levels of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Bayer’s (formerly Monsanto’s) Roundup herbicide, have been shown to drop quickly when we decide to eat all-organic.
“On average, the levels of glyphosate and its breakdown product aminomethyl phosphonic acid fell by more than 70% in both children and adults, with reductions seen after just three days of an organic diet….” Hot diggety, GO ORGANIC. Really. Do.
We received the below e-mail from Lincoln Fishman, Sawyer Farm, pictured above. Sawyer Farm grows and sells a variety of produce out of Worthington, MA; and cannabis for sales as CBD here at Debra’s.
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2020 8:53 PM
Subject: Healthy Soils Bill
Hello again everyone!
I went to the State House yesterday to advocate for the Healthy Soils Bill. It’s a climate change bill for farmers. I don’t use these emails as a political platform (or go to the State House, for that matter), but this particular bill is so much what the farm is all about. It would establish a Healthy Soils Program in MA, which would make technical assistance and grant money available to farmers who adopt or use practices that remove atmospheric carbon dioxide and put it into the soil.
What does that mean? Plants take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and combine it with water to make sugar. They use about half of that sugar for their own energy and donate the other half to microbes and fungi in the soil who trade nutrients and minerals in exchange. That carbon becomes part of their bodies, and ultimately mostly stays in the soil. Over time, this leads to huge amounts of carbon being stored in the soil. Soil is Earth’s largest carbon sink. It contains 2500 billion tons of carbon — the atmosphere only has 800 billion tons.
Natural ecosystems are good at capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide and storing it in the soil; conventional farming is not. Over 50% of the carbon in cultivated soil has been released into the atmosphere — about 25% of all anthropogenic emissions. That’s because of tillage — turning the soil exposes it to atmospheric oxygen and causes carbon to break down quickly into CO2. It’s also because the chemicals used in conventional farming kill the soil, so plants don’t have trading partners for their excess sugar.
Cover crops address most of these issues on our farm. They hold the soil in place, support huge microbial populations, and don’t get harvested, so their roots and shoots get fed back to the soil. Compost puts a lot of carbon into the soil too, so that soil life has plenty of food as it waits for crops to mature and exude sugar. We also do a bunch of other things that I won’t get into for brevity’s sake.
Down the road, this bill would provide technical assistance and grant money to farmers who want to adopt carbon-capturing practices, or farms like ours, who want to experiment with new ideas.
This is a really critical issue for climate change. It’s about flipping agriculture from CO2 source to CO2 sink. Imagine if we realized we’d engineered cars backwards and there was actually a way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by driving more. It’s like that.
If you feel moved to call your Representative or Senator about this bill, the time is now. Natalie Blais is probably most of your guys’ Rep, and Adam Hinds is pretty much everyone on this list’s Senator. You could just say, for example, “I support the Healthy Soils Bill. It’ll help farmers fight climate change. I want to see it get passed and funded!”
Both are supportive but hearing from constituents is meaningful. They are both in a position — and Hinds especially — to see that the bill gets funded.
About 10 of us farmers spoke at the legislative briefing today. It was a pleasure to be in a room full of people who are motivated by soil. Below are my unedited notes. Lincoln Fishman, Sawyer Farm, Worthington MA.
NOTES
Fifteen years ago, I was teaching science at a public high school in New York City. I had just taught a class on soil erosion and I went outside to get some lunch. Lower East Side, some of the most delicious lunch options in the world. But I had this…moment. I realized that none of my lunch options were ethical. All the things I’d just been teaching about — erosion, nutrient leaching, chemical runoff, climate change — I was about to be forced to support them with my lunch money. I felt hypocritical and complicit. And I felt so trapped.
Over the next couple years, my wife and I figured out how to turn that feeling into positive action, and we’ve been on that track for 15 years, and I’ll be on it until I die. Ten of those years have been at Sawyer Farm, where we use draft horses instead of tractors to reduce fossil fuels; we use cover crops, contour farming, zero chemicals, homemade compost; we have a state-funded solar array that covers all of our electrical use. All this to grow healthy food and build our soil every year.
When we started, it was about do no harm — drop out of the system. But in those 15 years, there’s been a lot of exciting science. And you’ve heard about it today — that good farming practices can actually capture carbon and put it back in the soil where it belongs. For me and the other farmers in this room, that’s incredibly motivating. It means that not only can we grow healthy food, but we can actually roll back the effects of climate change as we do it. This bill takes our energy, and our individual efforts, and gives it structure and focus (continued next page).
State and federal farm policy is still stuck back where my thinking was at 15 years ago. Mitigate damage, reduce harm. What’s exciting about this bill is that it takes the best farming practices, and the most recent science, and links them with public policy. It’s positive and pro-active.
On a deeper level, it acknowledges that soil health is the foundation that human health, human industry, everything we’ve been working towards, is built on. This bill begins to elevate soil to its rightful place in the public imagination, in public discourse, and in public policy.
To me, this is a no-brainer. I’m here because I want this to be the beginning of a dialogue, because the next step is funding and the nitty-gritty. I look forward to getting into all that with you.
Staffers David, Casey and Paul attended Natural Products Expo East with me (Debra).
Expo East is a large natural products trade show, which was held this year, in Baltimore. We had a wonderful time along with the 29,000 other attendees. (Compare this show to Expo West in Anaheim, CA with 89,000 attendees last year, and you’ll realize that this was a baby show!) But we were busy bees and came home jazzed up by conversations with other stores, new companies, old companies we’ve worked with for years, and our trade associations.
I’m always curious to see what dominates the show. Will this be the year of chocolate? Or the year of CBD (it definitely was that this year)? This year there were tons of beverages, some innovative, and lots of bars.
The food trends were plant-based everything and cauliflower (again). While I love cauliflower steamed and doused with olive oil and sprinkled with flaky salt, others prefer it as cauli crackers and pretzels. Cauliflower as an ingredient is still rocking and rolling.
Plant-based was the mantra everywhere. You can tell how hot plant-based is by just looking at the stock of the new company, Beyond Meat, whose stock went up more than 500% in one day some months ago. None of us were investors (boo-hoo!). But, personally, I wonder, if you don’t want to eat meat, why pretend you’re eating meat by eating mish-mashed plants manufactured so they can masquerade and pretend to be burgers? It doesn’t make sense to me.
If everyone felt the way I do, it would put a lot of new little companies out of business.
I came home more revved up by mushrooms (dried, as drinks, supplements, and as an ingredient in food), which were in abundance this year, like last.
Once again, we found the neat Bass Brushes made from a vegetable fiber that felt terrific in the hand, looked psychedelic, will last for about 5 years, and sell for $6.99. We ordered them in bright colors, and when they come in, you’ll see them at the register.
We placed an order with the bottle company (Kleen Kanteen), that makes Adam’s favorite coffee bottle. He’s proud to show you how he can tilt it upside down and no coffee leaks. We found a beautiful glass blown humidifier that works wonderfully well with essential oils. We can’t wait for you to see these.
We were on the lookout for CBD beverages and candies with supplement fact labels because we can’t carry any CBD beverages and candies with nutrition fact labels as those, in Concord, are now against the law. We found a CBD caramel that meets the legal criteria, and which I thought was delish. Stay tuned!
We lined up some speakers for the store, artwork for windows, participants for our October 26th birthday party, and ordered products for stocking stuffers.
We hugged Belal, whose mission it is to provide traceable, high quality, sustainably-grown products like basmati rice, coconut sugar and Himalayan salt. His company, The Real Co., works with people with disabilities. Every product sold feeds a child in need. We met the fellows at Ayoba-Yo, who will also come to our birthday party this year. We found a kombucha we all went nuts about (Tribucha). Energy efficient cans, fun artwork, less sugar than other brands. We ordered those in. We also ordered dried fruit from a company called “Rind”. Their motto is “Keep It Real. Eat the Peel”. We all loved their dried kiwi, strawberries and more. We hope they’ll come to the party on Oct 26th!
We met the fine folks at Zephyr Foods whose hamburger is not only delicious, but comes from all the cuts of a single cow. We met folks from the oldest organic date company in the US, established in 1914 (certified organic since 2000). They are coming to our party with dates like the black abbada.
Casey said, “The amount of work that these companies put into setting up booths is insane! I saw a full-size peanut plant, leaves and all. There was a honey company that brought in some of their bees in a little window hive! One thing that I learned at a talk was that Pet is the biggest growing natural product category. That’s when Debra leaned over saying ‘Not in our store!’. I really hope we can expect to see more cat food, but a lot of what I saw was dog.”
And from Paul: “When looking back on our trip to Expo East in Baltimore, one could surely say we all had a grand time! Whether it was beaming through the brick harbor walkways with David and Casey on electric scooters, or roaming the floor of the giant convention center, we all were grateful to be there. The funniest part of the trip was when David and I both won “a years supply” of Cauliflower pizza, back to back! This involved a wheel of fortune type game that David and I hilariously won one after another.
A few of the items that stood out to me were as follows: The Lumineux teeth whitening strips, The Genius products (nootropic supplements for more acute mental functioning), and all the delicious mushroom jerky.
Another funny moment was visiting the psychic tea stand. I walked up to the vendor and introduced myself. The tea was branded as: “Psychic Tea: It Knows What You Need”. The tea itself was actually pretty good, I will add. I got a huge kick out of it. The man went on to explain that he was a naturopathic doctor and also used to be Jerry Garcia’s doctor. Surely this roused my interest but also a bit of skepticism. I was wearing my Moog sweater, and he also stated: “Oh yeah, and I also only work with musicians”. I looked down at my Moog sweater and said you must know I’m a musician to which he tenaciously tried to get all my contact info. I settled with hesitantly giving him my email and was on my way. Quite a funny interaction indeed, to say the least.
All in all it was a fantastic trip, and I think we all enjoyed one another’s company in the port city of Baltimore. It’s good to be back as well.
Thursday morning, June 13, 2019, we awoke to the news that a policy statement regarding the sale of hemp-derived products in the Commonwealth had been issued by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR).
It scared the wits out of us. For us, there are three issues at stake: the right to use CBD (cannabidiol, a phytocannabinoid found, in this discussion, in agricultural hemp); the right to grow hemp CBD in Massachusetts; and the right to sell it. We feel that the policy statement opens the door to a ban on hemp-derived CBD, though that’s not for sure. The policy statement is poorly written and unclear.
We carry CBD in our nationally recognized and award-winning shop in West Concord because it’s safe and effective. Our customers tell us CBD works. They believe scientists have only begun to scratch the surface of all that CBD can do for our health. What we do know is that CBD is being used for everything from managing stress and sleep issues, to helping alleviate pain, and support performance.
We are enclosing an article on CBD that appeared in our store newsletter last October.
We are told, and hopeful, that CBD helps in the opioid crisis. CBD has been found to reduce cravings and anxiety in individuals with heroin use disorder when compared with placebo. The effects are said long-term without adverse events. This story is continuing to get coverage in the press.
Back to the three issues: Our Massachusetts farmers should be able to grow and produce a local hemp CBD. Right now, the hemp CBD we sell comes from places such as Colorado, Vermont, and the Netherlands.
Secondly, our business sells supplements like CBD. We want to continue to sell hemp CBD. Thirdly, our customers want the right to continue to use supplements like hemp CBD.
We take those supplements ourselves, and we and our customers help lower the health care costs in this country because self-care works!
We’re sure you know that CBD is sold in independent natural food retailers in the Commonwealth, whom you represent. It’s sold in stores like ours around the country, and now is sold in CVS, on Amazon, in an increasing number of supermarkets in the US.
We need your help safeguarding our right to sell hemp-CBD. Marijuana, which can get people high, is now being licensed and openly sold. Why are we even discussing throwing up barriers to growing, selling, using hemp CBD, which does not get one high?
We are not a pot shop. We employ 54 hardworking people in our shop who range in ages from 14-84. We sell everything from soup to nuts, organic produce, local grass-fed meats, and arnica cream for bumps and bruises. We have a take-out kitchen and do catering. We have shampoos and dish detergents that are environmentally safe, and we have a strong dietary supplement and herb department. You would like us!
We tried to reach out to the MDAR (they don’t pick up, and extension zero for the operator leads to VM for a pesticide program).
The language in the policy statement is vague and inconsistent. “Food” cannot contain “CBD.” But “supplements” cannot contain “hemp.” But then previously, the policy statement explicitly says hemp seed, hemp protein, and hemp seed oil are all allowed. And obviously, many of these are dietary supplements.
We need your help standing for the conscientious farmers who want to grow hemp and produce CBD in the Commonwealth. Let’s keep some more money in our state!
We need your vigilance so we and our customers, your constituents, will continue to have the right to sell and use CBD (we take it ourselves), all the while remembering that hemp has been used medicinally since ancient times in China and Rome.
Yes, our staff from Concord, Acton, Somerville, Hudson, Maynard, and some more towns, voted for you and we look forward to doing so again!
I’m writing a book. The title is The Little Shop that Could: a retailer’s love of food and community. My self-imposed deadline for the first draft is the end of August, and I’d love your help. If you have a memory about our shop you’d like to share, please send that memory to me via email. If you have a funny story about something you heard or saw, or that happened to you, I’d love to hear that as well. My email is Debra@debrasnaturalgourmet.com.
Correction, our first cookbook, If Kallimos Had a Chef, is not out of print. I was completely wrong, and we will get it back in our store shortly. Also, starting in September, I’ll be offering store tours! Stay tuned for details…
It’s been 25 years. A quarter century. It’s been a good run. But we’re closing the doors on my Stark Sisters granola. We were beloved in Concord, and distributed coast to coast!
Back in the day, we were the only granola to sweeten all five flavors with pure maple syrup. Back in the day, we stirred by hand back on Beharrell Street. I’d run back and forth between the store and our granola factory, and it was a grand adventure. At one point we were padlocked by a government agency because our label said, “pure vanilla extract,” which, as it turned out, was against the law. One had to say, “natural flavors,” or list all the sub-ingredients of vanilla extract.
Our granolas were visually gorgeous because we stirred by hand, slow roasted, and left crunchy chunks. The taste was, of course, delicious.
Over the years we outgrew our space on Beharrell, and moved to a co-packer. They were able to keep the taste, but we lost the chunks because the granola was mixed by machine. To keep prices affordable, we cut a few tiny corners. Almonds, for example, went from thick slices to small bits. No big deal, maybe. But when we received another letter this spring saying we had to cut costs again, in a big way, or raise our prices in a big way, we couldn’t justify it anymore.
Yes, those recipes can still be found in our cookbooks (in home-size batches) and we hope you have them all because we like talking to you through our recipes! Our first cookbook, which had four different publishers and four different titles like Cooking Around the World, and If Kalimos Had a Chef, is out of print. This one has our Nutty Maple recipe (Nutty Maple Molasses in the book). One of my brothers found a used copy for 39 cents on Amazon…
Still in print, Eat Well be Happy: A Second Bite (our second cookbook) has the other four: Chocolate Berry, Maple Almond, Maple Raspberry Blueberry and Peanut Chocolate.
Our third cookbook, The Blue-Ribbon Edition: From Our Kitchen to Yours has no granola recipes, but it does have some of my other faves. On the next page, you’ll find our recipe for Stark Sisters Maple Almond Granola. You can write me, and I’ll send you all five recipes.
Shiitakes are, among other things, one of the most commonly misspelled items in the produce department. (Hint: you really want to use both I’s).
What are mushrooms anyway? They’re not vegetables, they’re not fruits. They don’t grow leaves, roots, flowers or make seeds. They don’t require sunlight to grow, or produce chlorophyll. They live off decomposing plant matter.
Well, mushrooms are in fact fungi whose only happiness lies in releasing spores into the air so they can procreate. And they’ve been doing that forever – we’ve discovered traces in Stone Age relics. The ancient Egyptians wrote that mushrooms represented immortality. The Greeks attributed to them magical powers, and Romans referred to mushrooms as “the food of the gods.”
Of the more than 10,000 species of mushrooms, we know only about 100. The first cultivated mushrooms were most likely the shiitake (shee-TAH-kee) mushrooms, which have been grown in Japan for more than 2,000 years.
Today shiitakes have achieved star-celebrity status in the culinary world where you might find them called “Chinese black mushrooms” or “golden oat mushrooms.” They’re chewy, meaty and have an earthy, smoky flavor.
Nutritionally, shiitakes are a superior source of the B vitamins (nerve and stress vitamins) and contain protein, enzymes and complex carbohydrates. Even though they’re 90% water, shiitakes possess a higher nutritional classification than do carrots, corn, potatoes, tomatoes and turnips in terms of quality and quantity of protein content. They also appear to have significant anti-fungal, anti-tumor and anti-viral properties.
For the past thirty years, scientists, mainly in Japan, have been amassing evidence that shiitakes can help the body fight heart disease, cancer, and viral infections. Studies report that shiitake extracts can be used successfully in the treatment of diabetes, high blood pressure, allergies and autoimmune disorders, not to mention ongoing trials in the treatment of stomach ulcers, cirrhosis, hepatitis and rheumatism.
In a 1974 study, researchers concluded that shiitake had “completely nullified” the effect of consuming 60 grams of butter daily on the cholesterol level of the participants. Another study reported that women who consumed 1/3 ounce of dried shiitake or 3 ounces fresh every day for seven days had their total cholesterol levels drop between 7-12%.
Kenneth Jones, in his book, Shiitake: The Healing Mushroom, related that shiitakes have been used in folk treatments of colds, measles in children, bronchial inflammation, stomach ache, headache, faintness, smallpox and mushroom poisoning.
As far back as the 14th century, the Chinese described shiitakes as food that activates “Qi,” or life force, which protects the immune system. The ancient Chinese used shiitakes to nourish the blood circulatory system and treat colds.
In 1969, researchers at Tokyo’s National Cancer Center Research Institute isolated a compound from shiitake they named “lentinan.” Researchers have since demonstrated that lentinan works by stimulating immune cells to rid the body of tumor cells. In Japan, lentinan, or its extract called LEM, is approved for use as a drug to prolong the lives of patients undergoing chemotherapy for stomach cancer. It’s been found to be more lethal to HIV-infected cells than AZT in test tubes, and to block HIV cells from reproducing and damaging helpful T cells.
For those of us who suffer no serious illness and who don’t need to work with our doctor, a traditional preventative dose is 1-2 fresh shiitakes daily or about 1/3 an ounce of dried shiitake. Commercial preparations in capsule form are also available. Fresh shiitakes are easy to use. Just slice, and throw them in with whatever else you’re sauteeing.
Can you use dried shiitakes in lieu of the fresh mushrooms? Yes. To reconstitute, simply soak dried shiitakes in hot water for 20 minutes or up to 2 hours. Remove mushrooms from liquid and squeeze. Save and use liquid in place of liquid called for in recipe or drink as mushroom tea. Shiitake broth used in a recipe will impart depth and flavor to your dish. Mushrooms can be used whole or chopped in recipes.
Want a simple gourmet way to make your shiitakes? Using fresh or reconstituted dry shiitakes, toss with your favorite pesto (there’s no hard and fast rule here – use as much or as little pesto as you like, and whatever kind you like – you need enough pesto so your mushrooms are lightly coated) and bake in 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes. Serve as appetizer or accompaniment to dinner. To vary the flavor, toss mushrooms with some toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds and some tamari. Or make them spicy by adding cayenne pepper. Or use a curry sauce. You get the idea!
I find that slicing and adding shiitakes to any soup, casserole or stew lends a complex flavor, a chewiness, and provides some old-fashioned health care in the cold wintry months.
Did you know that, in addition to fresh shiitakes, we carry bags of frozen, sliced shiitakes to use, no muss, no fuss?
Finally, our store manager, Jim Leahy, said, “I think the most interesting thing about mushrooms is that their function ecologically is to break down matter and return it to the earth.”
It’s getting harder and harder to live a simple life. I’m not talking about politics. I’m talking about being able to take a walk without having to breathe in the “fumes” from people’s laundry. I’m talking about being subjected to the smell of people’s detergent and dryer sheets when you go anywhere in public.
Advertisements show people swooning over a towel after it’s been washed. They show folks taking ecstatic breaths when their clothes come out of the dryer.
OH my goodness. Did you know that cleaning products are not required by law to list all ingredients on the box? “Fragrance,” listed as a single ingredient, can contain up to 200 chemicals.
In an article called Toxic Laundry by Hiyaguha Cohen, she relates a study in which laundry got washed “with the scented detergent and then run through the dryer with a popular brand of scented dryer sheet. The scientists monitored the emissions coming from the dryers during each laundry load. After analysis, it turned out that the dryer vents emitted 25 volatile organic compounds (VOCs)…chemical compounds that can cause long-term health effects. The EPA classifies seven of the VOCs as hazardous air pollutants, and two — acetaldehyde and benzene — as carcinogens with no safe exposure level. In other words, even a small whiff of dryer fumes once in a blue moon can cause health problems.
“When both dryer sheets and the scented laundry were used, the emissions contained 17 more VOCs, including acetaldehyde, acetone, benzaldehyde, butanal, dodecane, hexanal, limonene, nonanal, octanal, tetramethylpropylidene cyclopropane, 1-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-4-ethylbenzene, 1-propanal, 2-butanone, and 2,7-dimethyl-2,7-octanediol…..
According to study director Anne Steinemann, ‘These products can affect not only personal health, but also public and environmental health. The chemicals can go into the air, down the drain and into water bodies [we would be talking about the rinse water here].’”
I recently had an experience with one detergent, Tide. Here’s the letter I wrote to the CEO of Tide (Proctor & Gamble) on December 13, 2018.
“Dear Mr. Taylor, I use safe cleaning products in my home. Two weeks ago, however, I visited my brother in Asheville, NC and used a bottle of Tide liquid laundry detergent he had in his home.
I’d like to know what ingredients in that product won’t wash out, won’t dissipate even though I’ve washed my clothes here at home four times, and each time afterwards hung those clothes outside on my line, where they are right now.
My clothes included a 100% merino wool sweater, a pair of Nike fleece-lined exercise pants, underwear that is nylon, some that is organic cotton, and Darn Tough socks.
I can’t bring the clothes inside because they still smell of whatever synthetic “perfume” is in that liquid Tide. The fake smell is simply awful!
I am more concerned about the effect of those chemicals on my skin. I am concerned what happens to lungs when the chemicals are breathed in. I would like to know what I’m dealing with, what might remove the chemical from my clothes. I’ve tried vinegar, soap, baking soda, all to no avail.
Thank you, Debra Stark”
(Since this letter was sent, I’ve washed those clothes 14 more times and have continued hanging them outside between washes. They still smell of fragrance from Tide.
Yes, the Consumer Care office at Proctor & Gamble answered my letter and wrote that they list their ingredients on their website. As directed, I went there and looked, but there were no ingredients for fragrance! When I wrote them back about this, Consumer Care went silent. Call to action. If, like me, you want to live a simpler life, contact manufacturers. Consumer opinion can have a real impact and create a shift. A good brand image is important to every business. Make companies accountable, make them change so you can live more simply.
A vanilla orchid being polinated by hand. Image courtesy Madecasse Vanilla.
I am dismayed that so many food writers today bless using synthetic, imitation vanilla in our food. The fake stuff is touted as tasting more vanilla-y, tasting stronger, and who, they ask, can really tell the difference anyhow when there are so many other ingredients in a cake?
Real vanilla extract is important, they state, only if you’re making a custard or ice cream where the difference can be more easily detected.
This feels wrong to me on so many levels. Not only are we dissing Mother Nature (have you seen the lovely, tropical plant called the vanilla orchid?), but we’re saying the social connection with the farmers who grow the plants and harvest vanilla doesn’t matter. We’re saying quality and artificial flavors don’t matter.
I don’t want to eat “foods” that aren’t foods, that are made from petroleum products, made with a chemical extracted from coal tar and wood, monkeyed around with in the lab to imitate a food. I don’t want to dumb down my taste buds with artificial flavors. Nor do I want to deprive myself of the 250+ compounds in real vanilla (this number according to Cook’s Illustrated), over and above the component vanillin, which is the one flavor component that is easily reproduced in labs.
I don’t want to eat ingredients such as propylene glycol or caramel coloring or refined sugar, all of which are used in the faux stuff. They are also used, perfectly legally, in some of the cheap vanilla extract knock-offs.
Which is also to say that not all real vanilla extracts are created equal. According to the FDA, “Vanilla extract may contain one or more of the following optional ingredients: (1) Glycerin, (2) Propylene glycol, (3) Sugar (including invert sugar), (4) Dextrose, (5) Corn syrup (including dried corn syrup.”
If you’re buying a quart of “real” vanilla extract for $15, it’s too cheap to be true. Most likely it contains some of the approved ingredients above.
So why have we gone the way of the lab? Price is certainly a major concern. We’ve also started making stuff in the lab because Mother Nature has provided a real challenge.
Remember the 2017 cyclone that wiped out 30% of the vanilla crop on Madagascar, the island that produces 80% of the world’s vanilla? That’s only one loving pat by Mother Nature.
Vanilla is said to be the world’s most labor-intensive crop. It is more difficult to grow and harvest than our most expensive spice, saffron.
Vanilla, says Lior Lev Sercarz, author of the book The Spice Companion, has a “single flower that opens up on only one day every year, and if you fail to pollinate it, that’s it. No vanilla bean.”
The bees have one day to pollinate the flower. The same for humans. One day. That’s it. Until next year when there’s again only one day.
And making the extract from the pods, those beans, also takes patience and many steps until the beans are soaked in liquid, typically a mixture of alcohol and water (35% alcohol and a minimum mandatory standard of 13.35 ounces of vanilla beans per gallon of steeping liquid).
Vanilla is also scarcer nowadays because there are large food companies who pledged to stop using artificial flavors, and they’re competing for the world’s limited supply.
The good news is that more countries in the developing world are starting to grow vanilla orchids. Israel is experimenting with green house growing of the vanilla orchid.
If you’re shrugging your shoulders and say that the difference in flavor between the real stuff and imitation vanilla isn’t important to you, if you don’t mind eating petroleum products, does real vanilla have any health benefits?
Vanilla is said to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and antidepressant properties. And I like to think that I’m eating the kind of foods Adam and Eve had in their cupboards in the Garden of Eden. I like the fact that I’m not turning my back on farmers who are doing the kind of artisanal work done for thousands of years!
How do you pick a good vanilla extract?
Think what makes a bottle of fine wine fine. Think the same about a bottle of fine vanilla extract! Vanilla flavor differs because of the differences in climate and soil –but also by each region’s unique method of curing and drying. While vanilla is said to have first been grown in Mexico, today the vanilla orchid is found in Israel, Tahiti, Uganda, Madagascar, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
We’ve carried many vanillas over the years. We’ve chosen our vanillas based on taste, mission, and ethics. Most recently, you’ve seen Singing Dog Vanilla grown in Papua New Guinea. Their label says, “Organic, non-GMO, sugar free, gluten free.” We’re introducing a new vanilla company called Madécasse, also Fair Trade, non-GMO, sugar free, gluten free. Kosher.
Our bakers, Tori and Nathan said that they felt the Madécasse vanilla has a more complex, rounded flavor. We’d like to know your opinion.
Want to make your own vanilla extract? Of course, use vanilla beans that are first quality (yes, we have those!) In a clean jar, combine 16 ounces alcohol (vodka, rum, bourbon or brandy – I like vodka best because you can see it change color as the beans soak) with 4 whole vanilla beans.
Combine alcohol and the whole vanilla beans in the clean jar and put on the lid. Place jar in a cool, dark place for 2 months, occasionally agitating the beans (I shake the jar each day). At the end of two months, your vanilla will smell heavenly and you can start to use it. Leave the beans in the jar or, as my mom used to do, take them out and put them in your coconut sugar jar to flavor the sugar.
Cook’s Illustrated says, “Like taste in music, it’s a personal choice. Do you want to listen to a soloist or a symphony? Some people will never buy an imitation vanilla because it’s made from petroleum, because it’s not ‘real,’ because it’s not as interesting or complex, or because they want to support small farmers. Others simply cannot justify the price of pure vanilla extract, and that’s fair, too.”
My strong opinion? I’d rather pay a fair price for the best quality food and pay less for health care as I move through life…..I know I want the celestial notes and amazing taste of real vanilla!
Robin, Roxanne, and Debra taking a break before outside the convention center in Baltimore, before entering the fray.
I attended this large natural products trade show in Baltimore with three staff members: Roxanne, who runs our kitchen; Robin, one of our supplement experts, and Meg who is in charge of our bodycare department, and we had a wonderful time. We were busy bees and came home jazzed up by conversations with other stores, new companies, and old friends from companies we’ve worked with for years.
We found a CBD company with a CBD that Roxanne wants to put in lemonade. We came home revved up about using Lion’s Mane mushroom in the kitchen, too. In the supplement department we sell Lion’s Mane for mental acuity and nerve repair (I took it after my stroke 12 years ago, and I credit it for a large part of my recovery).
Bass Brushes had a neat bright lime-green hair brush made out of a vegetable fiber that felt terrific in the hand, looked psychedelic, will last for about 5 years, and will sell for $6.99. Wait until you see it! There’s a waiting list for the product, so it will be some months.
We heard a young woman from UMass, who started an organization called “Protect Our Breasts.” We want her to come to our store! Another speaker said that teens who switched to safe cosmetics had significant reduction of chemicals in their body after only three days.
As new and exciting grassroots organizations continue to sprout up all over the place, we see on the flip side some of our old friends being swallowed up by Big Corporate. We have reason to hope. A lot of times, the new owners give the old management free reign. Sometimes, the new owners find themselves being pushed and prodded in the right direction… We remain skeptical a lot of the time. But we haven’t given up hope.
An example of this? When Hormel acquired Applegate, they appointed a former Applegate exec their VP of Mission, and her job is, within Applegate, to change the meat we eat. For her that starts on the farm. She also told us that Applegate is now working with a different cheesemaker (which is why we can no longer get Applegate Havarti) called Kalona. Kalona, a cooperative that has been in business since 1879, does things the right way.
Applegate’s VP of Mission says that rural America is the new inner city, and she and her team are determined to create a new food system that benefits everyone.
We heard that Nestle started an incubator and is funding a think-tank full of young people to develop new food companies with passion and a social mission. [Editor’s Note: we are of course not blind to Nestle’s history as a less-than-ethical company, so of course we approach this new development with at least a little healthy skepticism].
We heard, and I’m sure you all know this, that inflammation influences everything in our bodies. That the Mediterranean Diet works better than statin drugs. That meditation works better than statins. We eat too much sugar and refined carbs, and, yes, those make inflammation worse. When our insulin levels rise, we gain weight. When insulin falls, fat is oxidized for fuel. High insulin levels make us hungry. Turmeric, and particularly curcumin, works for weight control because it works on inflammation.
We found a company founded by two crazy poor Asians (that’s how they referred to themselves) from Singapore. They are working with stingless bees and have a line of medicinal, raw trigona honey with nectar from fruit trees. It tastes sweet-sour with notes of mango, coconut and pineapple. Medicinal like manuka honey, but unlike manuka because it is consistently infused with propolis due to the unique hive structure. From pesticide-free farms, this honey has a lower sugar content.
We took a chance and ordered their products. And we ordered their activated pili nuts that are volcanic-grown, raw, wild harvested. Check them out at www.pilipushers.com.
We placed an order for eco-ink kids’ stuff like coloring books, advent calendars, and more, that we’re very excited about. We hope you will be, too.
We lined up some speakers for the store, artwork for windows, participants for our October 20th birthday party, and ordered products for stocking stuffers.
I could go on and on about vendors and the show. We tasted lots of collagen products and loved one that was strawberry-lemonade flavored. We found a potato chip roasted with rice bran oil that tasted light and very crunchy. We met the folks from 24 Mantra Organics, an Indian company whose products we’ve introduced already.
We met Belal, whose mission it is to provide traceable, high quality, sustainably-grown food at affordable prices. His company, The Real Co., works with people with disabilities. Every product sold feeds a child in need. Belal will be debuting his packaged versions of coconut sugar, Himalayan salts and basmati rice at our birthday party.
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